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Republican Senate candidate Ted Cruz had a solid win last night over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in Texas, making Cruz the GOP’s newest national Latino star.

Experts say Cruz’s victory is another sign that the Republican Party is dominating when it comes to cultivating Latino politicians.

Among them: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is being eyed as Mitt Romney’s potential running mate, as well as Governors Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Brian Sandoval of Nevada. There are no Latino Democratic governors and just one senator – New Jersey’s Robert Menendez.

Is Cruz’s victory the latest sign that Democrats are mishandling minority recruitment efforts? Why has the GOP been more successful?

There is no connection between the GOP supporting a Latino candidate and then not having any relationship with the Latino community. What good is it to recruit a candidate if the candidate is then part of a mean-spirited, extremist agenda against the Latino community?

If recruiting people meant changing the party’s behavior toward the Latino community, that would be a major improvement. But that’s not happening.

In many cases, the tea party is imposing a candidate on the GOP – they’re not really recruiting them. The short story here is that there’s no relationship between the perception that the GOP is doing a good job electing Latinos when in fact their policies are still bad. That is why Latinos seem to be supporting the Democrats in all the polls.

The Bush family was able to make inroads into the Latino community. It wasn't based on policies, but it was based on the fact that the Bush family has never been seen as “mean” toward Latinos. There were disagreements, but Bush went on to get 44 percent of the vote. The GOP has lost that ground.

When Cruz gets to the Senate, as I’m sure he will, will he immediately say that we need comprehensive immigration reform? Will he say President Obama is right – that the DREAM Act is important? I highly doubt that.

It is less that Republicans are explicitly recruiting Latino statewide candidates, more that Republicans have simply proved willing to embrace talented, credentialed candidates who have appeal beyond their racial roots. In contrast, whatever their skill level, Democratic Latino or black politicians virtually always gain entree to politics through representing districts that are either ethnic or in a few cases, just monolithically liberal.

Predictably, the Democratic path yields minorities who are defined early as spokespersons for their own communities, and whose voting records are well to the left of center - a weak formula for statewide office even in blue states, a ludicrously weak one in red or border states. In the last 20 years, the rare Democratic minority breakthroughs at the gubernatorial or Senate level have been in states where Democrats had a massive edge in party ID (Massachusetts in 2006), Republicans fielded negligible opposition (Illinois in 2004) or in special cases like the "Year of the Woman" for Carol Mosely Braun in 1992 and Bob Menendez's emergence in a machine dominated Democratic environment like New Jersey, where Republicans have not won a Senate race since 1972.

What Democrats have done infrequently in 20 years - elect minorities to lead or represent their entire states - Republicans did four times in the 2010 cycle alone, and will do again with Cruz this November. Its a trend that the next generation of Latino, black, and Indian political talents can't help but see, and in the next ten years, it will redefine the racial contours of both conservatism and American politics.

The recent growth in top tier Latino Republican elected officials is a result of good timing, charismatic candidates and good campaigns not necessarily any special recruiting by the Republican Party.

That is not to say that the Democratic Party does not have a big problem. They do and it's huge. With no national level standard bearers it's difficult to give Latino voters the idea that the party cares about moving Latinos up the political ranks.

For young ambitious Democratic Latinos who want to enter top tier elected positions they face state level challenges such as term limits and and the partisan context of their state. For example, San Antonio mayor Julian Castro. Castro is one of the brightest Latino stars however, his potential for gaining a top tier elected position is slim in the short to medium term. As mayor he will be term limited and as a Democrat his chances of winning state wide elected office in Texas are slim. At a broader partisan level, the growth of Latino Democrats will not occur until they are able to effectively gain non-minority Democratic votes. The recent high profile successes of Republican Latinos have come principally from the non-Latino community.

In short, the key to the growth of Latino elected officials in both parties will be a combination of recruitment, which the Democratic Party does very well, and non-Latino vote mobilization, which the Republican Party does very well.

The rise of Ted Cruz and the other new Latinos stars in the GOP helps to show that today's Latino community is much more conservative and that it's naturally attracted by the basic principles the GOP has traditionally stood for: free economy and limited government and faith and family.

The reality is that the Latino community has dramatically changed in the past 20 years, since the current "great wave" of immigration began. Forty percent of the Latino population today is foreign born, and of the rest, many, if not most, are the children or grandchildren of immigrants. This new generation of Latinos is extremely entrepreneurial - they came here for a better future, seeking the opportunities offered by our free economy. Many left countries where big corrupt governments favored small elites and didn't allow hard working people to move up the socio-economic ladder.

They are also still in-tune with the social conservative values of their home countries and, therefore, are very religious and family oriented. They are pro-life, believe in traditional marriage and don't appreciate when government tries to interfere with the Church.

Moreover, they resent the condescending message and racial identity politics of the Democratic Party. They don't come here looking for government assistance and to become a "permanent underclass." They don't want to stand out and be different from the rest. They came here to succeed and to become fully American.

It shouldn't surprise anyone, therefore, that the GOP is recruiting young and charismatic Hispanic leaders who are profoundly conservative to run for office.

While it would certainly be great to see more Latino Democrats running and winning in Senate races and gubernatorial races (though Rick Perry should look out, San Antonio Mayor and newly minted DNC Convention Keynote Speaker Julian Castro is nipping at his heels), nothing could be further from the truth.

Dems have worked closely with Latino elected leaders at all levels all across the country to recruit great candidates for office. As a result, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will likely see the largest jump in Membership in its history come November. From Joaquin Castro (Julian’s twin brother) running in TX-20 to Astronaut Jose Hernandez in CA-10 to Michele Lujan Grisham in NM-01 or Joe Garcia or Gloria Romero Roses in FL-26, Democratic Hispanic candidates for Congress are running strong and will add to the Democratic voices in Congress who are on the right side of the issues most important to Latino families.

As a Latina, I think it’s great that Latino candidates are being elected in both parties - the more both parties fight for our votes, the better it is for the community at large. And it is high time Republicans are diversifying their ranks - welcome to the new demographics of the 21st Century GOP! But there is no question in my mind that from a substantive and issue stand point, the GOP is still in the dark ages as it relates to being relevant to Latinos and even understanding how to speak to our community with respect.

The big difference between Latino Democratic elected officials and Latino Republican elected officials, putting aside that Latino Democrats still outnumber Latino Republicans by 10 to 1, is that Latino Dems are connecting with Latino families on policies that will help those families get ahead. From jobs (reducing the Latino unemployment rate from a high of 13 percent that came from the Bush recession) to healthcare (the ACA gives 9 million Latinos health care coverage that didn’t have it before and Latino GOP electeds want to take that away from Latino families) to education ($5 billion investment in Head Start which is used by more than a third of Latino children, 150,000 Latino students with new Pell Grants, both programs that GOPers want to cut), to immigration where the entire GOP Senate turned their back on the same legislation that 23 GOP Senators supported just a few short years ago.

And it is worth noting that the damage done to the GOP by extreme voices like Kansas State Rep Virgil Peck who stated that the fix to immigration would simply be shooting “illegal immigrants from helicopters like they do feral hogs…” will not easily be undone no matter how many new Latino faces the GOP recruits if those faces and more importantly the GOP leadership do not stand up to those extremists and say “Basta!” which means “Enough!” Until that happens, you will not see more Latino voters flock to the GOP anytime soon. The latest poll has Romney at 22 percent and Obama at 70 percent with Latinos. Unless Romney can get to at least 40 percent, which he is certainly not making a concerted effort to do so, he will never see the inside of La Casa Blanca, no matter how many Latino GOP candidates are elected elsewhere.

I think there’s a realization among Republicans that after a few years of changing demographics, in order for the party to survive, there actually has to be outreach to the Latino community. I think Latinos also find that their ideology is more galvanized toward the Republican Party.

The biggest challenge we find is that sometimes there’s a perception within the Latino community that Republicans are racist or that the party has an apprehension toward our community. That’s the message Democrats have used for decades to get Latinos to vote for Democrats, rather than talking about the issues. Some Latino leaders still feel that if they come out and profess that they are Republican, they feel that within the community they’ll have to answer why they’re Republican and that can be a challenge.

I think the candidates we’re seeing today, like Ted Cruz, are just the tip of the iceberg. With the current economic crisis, you’re going to see more business people with no prior political experience run for office.

The Republican Party is continuing to build on recent successes in recruiting talented Latino candidates for first tier elective offices in strategic states, as well as building a robust farm team of local officeholders that will produce future national candidacies.

These developments are especially significant because they are frequently the products of contested primaries, and reflect a clear willingness of GOP supervoters to embrace Latino candidacies, as well as the natural home many of these candidates have on the political right. These trends, coupled with the limited political appeal and relevance of nativism, suggest a larger opportunity for the GOP: if they highlight new talents like Cruz, Rubio, Martinez and Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno, and the Obama faction continue to ignore the Latino Community other than at election time, the Republican coalition can embrace and incorporate a large portion of this demographic in the future. Republicans are natural advocates of Latino cultural values, hemispheric democracy and new trade opportunities in the Americas, and those strengths projected through new faces could shake up national politics.

Alex SchriverNational Chairman of the College Republican National Committee :

My congratulations go out to Ted Cruz, who is the kind of common sense conservative that we need to see more of in this country.

Most political operatives say that this election will be decided by two voting demographics: Hispanics and young people. While both of these demographics are typically thought to veer toward the Left, the failed policies of the Obama Administration are pushing them to the Right. The fact is, whether you’re young or old, black, white or Hispanic - your main priority is making a living and raising a family.

Under the Obama Economy, this is just not a reality for millions who remain unemployed and underemployed. These two demographics have been hit disproportionately hard by President Obama’s failed economic record. In June of 2012, unemployment among Latinos sat at 11 percent, three points higher the national average. Unemployment among young people remains at 16.4 percent.

This November, millions of Hispanics and young people will head to the polls, not to vote based on identity politics, but to cast a ballot for the candidate they believe is most suited to turn this economy around and get Americans back to work. Gov. Romney has the business and policy know-how necessary to reverse the abysmal record of President Obama and to get millions back to work.

Ted Cruz didn't win last night because of the Republican Party. He won last night by essentially running against the Republican Party.

The self-described "Cruz Missile" easily became the anti-establishment tea party darling by touting his lifelong "defense of the Constitution and U.S. sovereignty." (Yes, a Texas solicitor general is totally capable of doing both at the same time. With his hands tied behind his back. Blindfolded.)

The idea that a handful of rising Latino stars could transform the Republican Party into the champion of Latino voters is only true if you believe that Sarah Palin helped transform the party into the champion of women. A few politicians does not a mandate make.

Ed EspinozaWestern states Democratic consultant; former DNC official :

While Republicans have been more successful in electing Latinos to statewide office, they have not necessarily dominated in candidate recruitment within the Latino community. And with an average vote share that hovers well below the 40th percentile, Republicans certainly haven't been able to win over Latino voters.

Because with the exception of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, all of the other Republican statewide Latino office holders started off as candidates who challenged the political establishment and went against better-known primary opponents. In the case of Ted Cruz from Texas, he ran against an entrenched Party-favorite in Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. Marco Rubio ran against then-sitting Florida Republican Governor Charlie Crist (though once Rubio found his footing, Crist was compelled to run as an independent), and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez had to work her way through a crowded five-way primary.

My point is not to take away the success of these Latino officials - but to point out that the initial Republican support for these individuals was scant and eventually offered by default.

Democrats run stronger in fielding Latino candidates for local office, largely due to strong grassroots organizing at the local level. Many of these elected officials are working their way through the ranks of public service and are mentioned as candidates for Governor in the near future. Officials such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. The National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), though a non-partisan group, is a group that is largely from the Democratic Party.

Ted Cruz's victory yesterday over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was no fluke. Dewhurst represented the GOP establishment, which stands for little but staying in office, whereas Cruz, an educated and articulate young voice, spoke about liberty and opportunity under limited constitutional government. That's the same message we hear from Marco Rubio, Susana Martinez, and Brian Sandoval.

Like the Republican establishment, therefore, Democrats, with their paucity of attractive Latino politicians, aren't so much mishandling their minority recruitment efforts as mishandling their message. Prospective minority candidates need a vision that resonates, not the vision the Democratic establishment is selling. Latinos are no different than others: They want a life of opportunity, not a life of dependence on government. Who wants to live the "Life of Julia"?

Mark Hannah Former campaign aide for John Kerry and Barack Obama; Adjunct professor of media studies, The New School :

There's a reason that President Obama won two-thirds of the Hispanic vote in 2008 and that, according to this month's Gallup poll, he's beating Romney among Latino voters by a 2-to-1 margin. The entirety of the Democratic platform - from universal health care and social justice to tax fairness and immigration reform - is more aligned with the values of most Latino voters.

Yes, Latino voters support Democratic candidates. But the Democratic Party also supports Latino leaders. The most recent example of this is the party's selection of San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as the keynote speaker at the Democratic convention in Charlotte later this summer. Oh, and let's not forget Bill Richardson. How many Latino presidential candidates has the Republican Party put forward lately?

I once heard an astute pundit (who happens to be a Democrat) explain that Republicans were better at promoting the careers of individual politicians of color, but Democrats were better at promoting policies that actually appealed to the policy interests of racial and ethnic minority voters broadly. I think that his comment is totally applicable to today’s question.

It’s really hard to draw any inferences about racism in the major parties by simply counting a handful of elite Latino politicians in both parties. A more accurate comparison would be to look at the proportion of Republican to Democratic Latino elected officials broadly. According to NALEO, there were 116 Republican Latino elected officials in the US in 2010 (Most of the more than 5,700 Latino officials hold nonpartisan offices). In contrast, there were 1,248 Democratic Latino officials. When we consider the fact that about 30 percent of Latinos identify as Republican, this suggests that the GOP has a long way to go in terms of boosting Latino candidate recruitment and getting them elected to office.

Republicans really limit their ability to make inroads among minority voters when they refuse to acknowledge that group interests exist and when they take stands on policies that seem to run counter to the preferences of many minority voters. However, it’s nice to see the party boost individual minority politicians because it is good, in a modern, diverse America, to see a diverse political class on both sides of the aisle.

Descriptive representation is no substitute for adequately representing the substantive interests of a particular constituency, but it does have its benefits. A diverse cadre of elected officials lends a sense of legitimacy to our political system. It provides evidence that as a country we have made some progress from the rigid racial stratification that defined our country fifty years ago. Also, there is evidence that minority voters are energized by seeing people who look like them in positions of leadership. Public opinion data shows that blacks who are represented by blacks in Congress give their representatives higher job approval ratings. Minority voter turnout (which has historically lagged white turnout) has been shown to be higher in local jurisdictions represented by minority politicians.

Should the Democratic Party’s nearly fifty year perceptual advantage in terms of civil rights take them off the hook for the underrepresentation of Latinos in their party? Absolutely not. Latinos are grossly underrepresented in elective offices nationwide. Both parties bear the responsibility to cultivate a broad, diverse base of leadership and to make sure that all Americans - regardless of race, color, ideology and creed - can credibly believe that their interests are being represented descriptively and substantively.

Ted Cruz is whip smart, hard working, and has a great temperament for lawmaking. He'll be a fantastic senator.

Certainly the GOP's rising Latino stars are all for the good. If one is not on the ticket this year, it's very likely we'll see one in 2016 or 2020. But remember that Cruz, like Marco Rubio, wasn't "cultivated by the Republican Party." Both had to win by challenging the party's preferred candidate in primaries. And I wouldn't say that the Democrats are "mishandling minority recruitment efforts." Seems to me they're winning the lion's share of the Latino vote.

The GOP is doing what it always does better than the Democrats - recruit minority individuals and candidate who can "promote" their GOP brand.

The unfortunate truth is that these candidates have to hew to the traditional platform of the GOP which leaves their broader appeal and use as role models extremely limited. On the other hand, for one reason or another, Democrats are less able or willing to elevate rising stars amongst their farm teams, preferring to use their traditional appeal on issues affecting minority communities to offset less-than-stellar recruiting efforts. In swing areas, it can and does make a difference, as the GOP has found out. One day, perhaps, the Democrats will wake up and do the same.

Our Democratic bench is deep among all ethnicities due to the politics of organizing and, even more important, the policies of opportunity. Democratic policies on jobs investments, healthcare, education and the DREAM Act mean that even more Latino candidates and voters will emerge in the coming years.

All political entities must reach out to recruit and support candidates of quality and equality. The competition for more leaders who look and live like America is healthy for our democracy.

The GOP has a rich history here: the first Hispanic or Latino members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo of New Mexico and Romualdo Pacheco of California, were Republicans.

But the primary win for Ted Cruz does not signify that the party is maintaining its historical attachment to recruitment of Latino public officials. The establishment in both Florida and Texas lined up behind Charlie Crist and David Dewhurst.

Credit for any recruitment of the two latest stars of the national politics goes to grass roots conservative activists and groups like the Club for Growth who defied the Republican Party in their backing of Rubio and Cruz. Perhaps being stunned into defeat by these two might help the party reconnect with their historical roots.

Still, establishment Republican leaders will bask in the glory of bringing them into the party. It brings to mind the sage political advice: “If you're being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade."

There's no question that their influx of young up-and-coming Republican Hispanic political leaders will be of great help to the GOP, but not because it will pay off in immediate gains with Latino and Latina voters. There's little evidence that non-Cuban voters from these communities shift their support in large numbers on the basis of a candidate's ethnicity, so the idea that these recruitment successes will lead to similar benefits at the polls is wildly and overly optimistic.

These young leaders have the ability to bring about positive change for the Republican cause not at the polls this November but over a longer period of time in the public policy arena, specifically on the party's self-immolating agenda on the issue of illegal immigration. Marco Rubio has proposed a version of the Dream Act that would provide legal status for specific groups of young immigrants who were brought to this country as children without documentation. Susana Martinez has correctly criticized the concept of self-deportation as one that is unrealistic and unworkable. As time passes, these and other Latino leaders will have the chance to convince the GOP of the necessity for comprehensive immigration reform.

Hispanic-American voters are faced with the choice between a president who has repeatedly broken his promises to pursue a Bush-Kennedy-McCain immigration bill and a challenger who doesn't even bother to make the promise at all. Rubio and Martinez and their colleagues have the ability to move this conversation forward in a way that the rest of official Washington is unable or unwilling to attempt. It's going to require sweeping policy change to rearrange the political math for the nation's fastest-growing voting communities - and that's going to take some time.

Ted Cruz is going to be major star in national politics, and his victory is the best news Republicans have received since winning the 2010 midterm elections.

Republicans know that a message of economic growth, limited government, and of family values resonates with Latino voters. The Democrats take their African American and Latino voters for granted, but the Republicans are fighting hard to make inroads into these communities. It was no accident that George W. Bush got 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004.

Dewey ClaytonProfessor of Political Science, University of Louisville :

I would be hesitant to say that Cruz’s victory is the latest sign that Democrats are mishandling minority recruitment efforts.

I don’t measure success simply by the fact that the GOP has several Hispanics in high profile political positions alone. In the 2008 presidential election, Hispanics preferred Obama to McCain by better than two to one. Public opinion polls currently show that Latino support for Obama has jumped to 70 per cent, which may be due to Obama’s recent decision not to deport some young immigrants. San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro will be the first Latino keynote speaker of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this summer.

The Democratic National Convention will be chaired by Latino Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. So, there is intense lobbying being done by both the Republicans and the Democrats to attract candidates and a key demographic of voters who will be crucial to the candidates’ reelection bids.

Ted Cruz’s impressive victory last night in the GOP primary run-off for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas had less to do with the GOP’s recruitment of candidates based on their race, creed, or heritage and more to do with Republicans enthusiastically embracing candidates of all races, creeds and backgrounds who champion a strong limited government, pro-growth, pro-jobs governing philosophy.

It is a public policy vision that is attractive to all Americans of every background who want to work hard, endeavor to achieve great things, and build a wonderful life for their families. It is not a philosophy based on individual issues attractive to one particular race, a specific religion, or a needed special interest group to garner political votes; which appears to be the way Democrats do things.

This theory promulgated by the Democrats and the main stream media that Latinos and all other minority groups are all liberals and Obama supporters is just absurd. When candidates like Ted Cruz and other Latino elected officials like Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada sound a clear, smaller government, pro-entrepreneurial and greater freedom message, then they win, win big, and lead the nation into the future.

All eyes in the GOP are currently on the future of Marco Rubio, and rightly so, he is enormously capable and energizing; but the building buzz in the party is about Governor Susana Martinez.

Martinez is building a very positive pro-growth and limited government agenda in New Mexico and her star is rising like a phoenix both within the GOP and as a leader on the national level!

It is ironic that the GOP has never had more success in attracting Latino candidates at exactly the same time their party has never been more unpopular among Latino voters.

Much of the GOP's unpopularity with Hispanic voters is due to its hostility toward immigrants. During one of the GOP's presidential debates earlier this year Herman Cain spoke openly of building an electrified fence on the U.S.-Mexican border. Typically the most hostile positions in the primary attracted the most GOP support. Recall that Romney ran to the right of both Perry and Gingrich on immigration, which helped him with conservatives who were skeptical of him.

Having a few elected Latino Republicans won't help the GOP win more support as long as their positions on certain issues remain the same. If today's Republican Party turned away from its nativist leanings and embraced a more inclusive attitude toward immigrant, like Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush advocated, then it would see an increase in support among Latino voters.

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